SCRI Avid’s Official Report

[Craig Seeman]

[Oliver Peters] “Harmonic,”

a tangent but . . .
Harmonic Q1 Revenue Down, Losses Up
https://scri.com/harmonic-q1-revenue-down-losses-up/

[Oliver Peters] “You’re assuming that ISIS isn’t making money. I doubt that big time. ISIS is an enterprise-grade storage solution primarily intended for broadcast and high-end post. “

I’m not assuming that at all. I’m saying there may be opportunities to open up the management software side much as they opened up their NLEs. They didn’t stop selling their hardware as a result. They move more software and if software is profitable than it can help. Of course you could argue that keeping it tied together with Isis hardware is better for them.

[Oliver Peters] “That’s a space that requires consulting services, training and other value-added items, which can’t be supplied by software-only front-end management.”

And those services can’t be sold with software? There are companies that sell software that also include significant support contracts on the enterprise level that aren’t selling hardware.

[Chris Harlan]

[Tim Wilson] “t looks like the definition of low-hanging fruit.
“

Yeah, definitely. I have it. Its fun. It kind of reminds me of Pinnacle products I bought for fun a decade and a half ago. Its just a cute little “what’s it,” not a planned foray into tablet editing.

[Andrew Richards]

[SCRI] “. . . the company expects to “trim” its product line.”

That shouldn’t be too hard. They have 542 products after all. A little more focus could do them a lot of good.

Best,
Andy

[Chris Harlan]

[Andrew Richards] “[SCRI] “. . . the company expects to “trim” its product line.”

That shouldn’t be too hard. They have 542 products after all. A little more focus could do them a lot of good.
“

Agreed.

[Tim Wilson]

[Craig Seeman] “[Oliver Peters] “You’re assuming that ISIS isn’t making money. I doubt that big time. ISIS is an enterprise-grade storage solution primarily intended for broadcast and high-end post. ”

I’m not assuming that at all. I’m saying there may be opportunities to open up the management software side much as they opened up their NLEs.”

On the product side, Unity, including ISIS, supports FCP clients, which no longer need separate allocations. I don’t know if they support FCPX. LOL

I’m not spilling any secrets to say that the people in every company sit around on late Friday afternoons and talk about what they future would look like if they ran things.

On one hand, it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where Avid was primarily a services and storage company, in that order. It’s not terribly far-fetched, in the sense that Avid broadcast sales (ca. 2006 when I left of course — no knowledge since then) was very much oriented around systems and workflow design, using LOTS of people’s products.

That said, it’s impossible to overstate how critical Media Composer, Interplay, et al are to ISIS sales. Maybe Avid is ready to sell ISIS as STORAGE to places like Visa or Pfizer as heavy iron…but I’m thinking not. Triple redundancy, scalability and configuration flexibility are nice….but for ISIS, it’s all about running software and services. Take away the value added by things like Interplay and Unity management that are exclusive to Avid editing clients and it’s not best in class. ADD those things and it IS best of class.

I was in the back of the room for one of the ISIS rollout events, and the very first question after the preso that time was “When can I get one twice that big?” The place exploded in laughter, followed by thunderous applause. For the target customer, this is a product with velocity. And, as noted in an earlier post, nice margins.

Craig Seeman [Tim Wilson] “(Note that one of the FCPX product managers was the designer of Symphony….He had my old job at Boris FX before he moved to Apple.”

Interesting career path. So when do you start your job at Apple? ;->

I spoiled it by, a) working at Boris and Avid in the wrong order, and b) being a dick. LOL Apple will hire me some time after hell freezes over….and thaws….and freezes again. I’ll be the guy in the kitchen with the hair net and mop.

Although if Karma works the way I understand it, I’ll be the stuff that that guy is mopping up….

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Craig Seeman]

Tim, the problem that Avid is facing (IMHO) is that they need to enter growth markets. It’s not that Isis should go away but that Avid may have better growth potential in software and services. It may be that some of what they offer with Isis can be applied/sold with other systems.

On the other hand if Isis is their biggest money maker then they need to look at what boat anchors are dragging down the ship. One can’t say “everything is great” it’s just that numbers stink, as a business model.

[Tim Wilson]

[Craig Seeman] “On the other hand if Isis is their biggest money maker then they need to look at what boat anchors are dragging down the ship. One can’t say “everything is great” it’s just that numbers stink, as a business model.”

I have no idea if it’s their biggest money maker….but I really do wonder if the issue isn’t as simple as spending less than you make.

But like I said, I’m an idiot.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Craig Seeman]

[Tim Wilson] “but I really do wonder if the issue isn’t as simple as spending less than you make.”

Avid is pretty much debt free and they do have cash on hand so I don’t know if the solution is as simple as that. They’ve done a pretty good job at cost cutting. My guess is they need to expand in markets they thing they can be strong in and, maybe, drop out of markets that have low ROI. I’m not sure what those are though.